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W. F. WILLIAMS & V. H. KLINEFELTER.

REVERSE SEAMER FOR SEWING MAGHINES.

No. 341,364. Patented May 4, 1886..

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM F. \VILLIAMS AND VICTOR H. KLINEFELTER, OF BALTIMORE, MD. ASSIGNORS TO KLINEFELTER BROTHERS, OF SAME PLACE.

REVERSE SEAMER FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 341,364, dated May 4, 1886.

Application filed May 27, 1885. Serial No. 166,864. (NO XHOdOlJ plied to the work-table of a sewing-machine.

Fig. 2 is a side view looking in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a crosssection through line a: .r, Fig. 1; and Figs. 4 and 5 are views showing the forms of seams that may be made.

The object of our invention is to provide a device to be attached to sewing-machines for the purpose of sewing reversed scams, or such seams as are formed when two edges of material are to be united, and one edge is folded upon one side and the other edge is folded upon the other side, so that the line of stitching passes through fon r thick nesses of the material.

The invention is more particularly intended for making ,bagsioiLbnilap or canvas, where such seam is special fdesiral lgby reason of its strength, bi'i t i applicable to any other uses where such a seam is employed.

The invention is designed to enable the operator to continuously sew one bag after an other without preparing the edges or folds before stitching, and without stopping the sewing-machine preparatory to starting an other bag, and to sew perfectly in a straight line any distance from the edge of the folds.

\Ve will now proceed to describe our means for accomplishing these results.

In the drawings, A represents the table of a sewing-machine to which our device is attached, and 13 represents the position of the presser-foot of the machine.

0 is the base-plate or main frame of our device, which is connected to the table of the machine by a single screw, a. This base-plate is made with a slot, a, at right angles to the line of feed, through which slot the screw a passes to rigidly secure the plate to the worktable, and by which slot and set-screw this plate may be set closer to or farther from the line of the seam.

O is another plate, resting on the worktable, and connected to O by a bridge-spring, O, which is pivoted to plate 0, but rigidly connected to O. This bridge-spring carries a supporting-plate, b, to which are attached the seam-folding devices, which latter occupy a position in line with the direction of feed to the needle of the machine, and are inclined from the horizontal at an angle of about twenty degrees upwardly from the needle to the operator.

The seam-forming devices consist of a middle plate, D, an upper curved folding-bar, D, alower curved folding-bar, D", an upper spring guiding-tongue, E, resting above the middle plate, and between it and the upper curved folding-bar, D, and a lower spring guidingtongue, E, which rests beneath the middle plate, and between it and the lower curved folding-bar, D". The upper portions of the spring guiding-tongues, and also the middle plate, are made wider than the portion near the needle, and are connected 011 one side, and these upper ends of the upper and lower guidetongues are curved to form tapering throats, to facilitate the entrance of the two edges of the material. The curved upper and lower folding-bars are attached to the middle plate and curve around the guide-tongues in nearly parallel planes therewith until one rests above the upper guide-tongue, and the other rests below the lower guidetongue at a point near the needle. Itwill be perceived that the distance from the point (Z to the lefthand edge of the seam-folderis only about half the width of the higher or mouth ends of the folder, so that when the two edges of material are inserted, one between the middle plate and upper tongue spring-guide and the other between the middle plate and lower tongue springguide, they enter the full lateral depth of the throats, or flush back to its side wall, 0. Then, when the material is fed toward the needle, the curved bars commence to fold said material at' the point (I, about the middle of that part of the material that has entered the throats, and take the material on the right of point (I, as shown in dotted lines at Z, and fold it over the top of the upper spring-tongue, bringing it gradually intoparallel position as it nears the needle end of the folding-lip, and as the same action is being carried on underneath the middle plate it will be seen that the two edges ofmaterial entered at the tapering throats are folded from two thicknesses in vertical direction, as shown in dotted lines, Fig. 4, to four thicknesses in vertical direction, as shown in full lines, in which position the needle of the machine passes straight through all four thicknesses, making a doubleand reverselyfolded seam. The upper and lower spring tongueguides, it will be seen, rest in the fold or bight of the cloth and hold it up to its place against the displacing influence of the curved foldingbars. These spring tongue-guides are preferably free at their ends adjacent to the needle, and at their wider and upper ends are fastened-to the throat-sections.

In sewing together the bottoms of the bags it is not necessary to make the reverse seams; but the selvage edges may be run directly together. To permit this without disconnecting the work, the plate 0 and spring 0 are swung around at right angles about the pivotscrew 0 as shown in dotted line, and the work is swung to the left, and as soon as the bottom of the bag is brought into line with the needle the plate 0 is brought back and allowed to rest on top of the work.

If desired, our device may be used to turn both edges of the material in the same direction, to form a seam such as is shown in Fig. 5. To do this it is only necessary to place both edges of the fabric above or both below the middle plate,instead of one above and the other below.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new is- The combination, with the flat plates 0 and O, the first being constructed for rigid attachment to the work-table and the latter free to move, of the bridge-spring O pivoted to plate 0 and rigidly attached to plate 0, the upper and lower spring guide-tongues, E and E, the middle plate, D, the upper and lower curved folding-bars, D D, attached to the middle plate and curved laterally around tongues E E in substantially parallel planes, and the supporting-bar I), connected to the top of the bridge-spring at one end and to the upper or feed end of the seam-folding devices at the other, substantially as described.

WVILLIAM F. \VILLIAMS. VICTOR I-I. KLINEFELTER.

' lVitnesses:

JOHN T. Hrssny, J. O. EVERSFIELD. 

